Image Source: Pexels

This Week’s Summary

• The crypto market is looking to end the week with a total market capitalization of $1,959 trillion.
• Bitcoin (BITCOMP) lost nearly 9% of its value to fall by almost $10,000 from $64,000 this week.
• Ethereum (ETH-X) set a new ATH for the third week in a row, but lost 2% over the week.
• Ripple's XRP (XRP-X) lost almost 10% of its value during the past seven days.
• Binance Coin (BNB-X) also set a new ATH before losing roughly 4% of its value during the week.
• The DeFi sector added more than $9 billion to the total value protocols (TVL).

Crypto Trends for April 12-18, 2021: Performance and Analysis

Until Sunday morning, the cryptocurrency market was having one of its best weeks in history. Firstly, Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Binance Coin were setting ATHs (all-time high) one after another. Then, Dogecoin (DOGE-X) entered the Top-10 cryptocurrencies by market cap after a nearly 300% value boost. Everything seemed to be rosy for the industry.

However, the weekend brought the rumor that the U.S. Treasury is “to charge several financial institutions for money laundering using cryptocurrencies.” The crypto industry had already overcome another piece of negative news on Friday. Then, the Central Bank of Turkey issued an official statement announcing that Turkey will ban cryptocurrency payments starting on April 30.

Unfortunately, the news on the U.S Treasure investigation was too much for the young market to take. As a result, most cryptocurrencies started bleeding heavily. The downfall is visible in the overall market capitalization, which dropped by more than $100 billion. At the time of writing, it stands at around $1,959 trillion.

Bitcoin had a most impressive week until Sunday. After several weeks of struggle, it finally broke past and beyond the $60,000 resistance level. More so, it established a new all-time high at $64,863.10 on Wednesday. From there on, it seemed that BTC would never go below $60 thousand again.

Nevertheless, it did. And, after the money-laundering news came out, Bitcoin dropped as low as $52,000. At the time of this writing, the bulls are regrouping and getting behind the crypto. Still, the battle with the bears is as fierce as always. Bitcoin has recently been trading at around $55,000.

Ethereum was following in Bitcoin’s steps for most of the week. It also set a new ATH at $2,547.56 on Friday, its third consecutive record in just as many weeks. Unluckily, it also followed Bitcoin on the way down with a 2.2% value loss.

Ethereum has recently been trading at around $2,110. Looking forward, the nearest resistance level at $2,207 looks within a hand’s reach. However, it all depends on its ability to recover from negative news or any future rumors.

Ripple’s XRP was flying high and mighty before the weekend. On Wednesday, it came close to the $2 resistance level, stopping just 0.05 cents off of it. Since then, it bled heavily and now amounts to a 9.7% value loss for the past seven days.

XRP has been recently trading at around $1.30. The good news is that Ripple’s coin didn’t go on a downward spiral as it did in previous years when similarly bad news had killed its joyride.

Since establishing itself as the third-best ranked cryptocurrency by market cap, Binance Coin recorded one ATH after another. The latest one came on Monday when it spiked at $637.44. By now, you probably guessed that it didn’t go well for Binance’s native coin. After registering an overall 4% value loss over the week, BNB has recently been trading at around $452.

Elsewhere, the other altcoins also recorded massive losses across the board. For example, Stellar (XLM-X) lost almost 20% of its value. The only silver lining this week comes from the always surprising Dogecoin. The crypto token that started as a joke grew in value by nearly 300%. As a result, it entered the Top-10 cryptocurrencies by market cap. Dogecoin has recently been trading at around $0.30.

Elsewhere, the DeFi sector recorded another successful week by adding more than $9 billion to the total value protocols (TVL), which now stands at nearly $60.11 billion.

What’s in the News?

• Coinbase (COIN) became the first cryptocurrency exchange listed on the Nasdaq and opened trading at around $381 per share and is valued at $86 billion.
• Football legend Pele is one of the latest celebrities to have their names linked to NFTs. The three-time World Cup winner’s best career moments will drop on Ethernity Chain starting May 2.

Next Week’s Market Forecast

The cryptocurrency market ends a week that could have easily been one of the best periods in its history. Unfortunately, as the latest events show, the industry is still vulnerable to negative rumors and news.

At the time of writing, there is very little to know about the rumor that the U.S. Treasury will investigate money laundering involving cryptocurrencies. So, it is difficult to say how the market will react next week when more details should transpire in the press. For now, we can only hope that Bitcoin and the ensuing cryptocurrencies will recover quickly.